Tag Archives: Donald Trump

In a recent working paper and op-ed, Professors Daniel Hemel and Eric Posner argue that the federal statute banning obstruction of justice applies to the president, and that the president would violate the statute if he intervened in an investigation to advance his personal interests. Hemel and Posner suggest that this can be reconciled with […]

Many of President Trump’s objections to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 are likely unconstitutional. The 708-page act funds the government for the remainder of the fiscal year and includes multiple restrictions on how President Trump can spend money, otherwise known as “riders.” In a signing statement, President Trump took issue with 76 of these […]

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released its long-awaited report on the likely budgetary effects of the American Health Care Act. The legislative counterpart to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, CBO estimates how federal spending and revenues would change as a result of proposed legislative bills. The resulting Republican talking points were […]

The Ninth Circuit’s decision to deny en banc review in Washington v. Trump was not, of course, the biggest development yesterday in litigation related to the President’s executive orders restricting entry from seven six overwhelmingly Muslim countries. But the Ninth Circuit’s denial of reconsideration—and, more specifically, Judge Bybee’s dissent from the denial—is worthy of attention […]

Agencies have long known that the formal promulgation of rules is a regimented process, involving codification of requirements and consideration of public comments. The natural curb on agency evasion of this onerous process is the potential threat of lawsuits under the APA, but EO 13771 generates another, possibly more stringent curb. The Jan. 30, […]

Despite recent Republican warnings that the Senate will work 24/7 to overcome Democratic delay tactics, Republicans are unlikely to execute that strategy. Floor time is the most valuable resource that Senate Republicans have and they have a number of pressing issues. Senate Republicans only have limited time to use the Congressional Review Act and its […]

President Trump’s “Executive Order on Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs” has received a fair amount of attention for its “2-for-1” formula: if an agency wishes to promulgate a new regulation, it must “identify at least two existing regulations to be repealed.” But there is an additional requirement built into the executive order that has […]

While many things in Washington will change as a result of last Tuesday’s results, one thing that will not change is the importance of the D.C. Circuit. The nation’s leading administrative law court will continue to review agency actions in the Trump era, including actions based on agency interpretations of the statutes they administer. And […]

Over at Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen has a prescient (and scary) post on the “fear of regulatory reprisal from a Trump administration,” drawing on Philip Hamburger’s provocative book—Is Administrative Law Unlawful?—as well as Adrian Vermeule’s ingeniously titled review of the book:No. (Hamburger has since posted a nice parry entitled Vermeule Unbound, alluding to Posner and […]

The betting website PredictIt now puts the odds of Donald Trump winning the White House this November at 22%. I don’t think that estimate is too far off: Trump is ahead in virtually every recent Republican primary poll, and he trails Hillary Clinton by 3.4 percentage points in a general election matchup (according to the […]